photo by Judith Davidson
This story was submitted as part of Minnesota Remembers Vietnam. We have faithfully reproduced each story as it was originally submitted for the Story Wall, and have not corrected any spelling or grammar errors.
By Judith Davidson | Wayzata, MN
Fight or flight?
Grouped together and sitting on a wooden floor in the apartment of a friend, we students all listened intently to the radio broadcast of December 1, 1969. Each birth date was drawn, one at a time, signifying which young men with birth dates from 1944-1950 would be called up for active duty to aid the war in Vietnam.
It was a war that most students despised and didn’t want to participate in. Some protested, burned their selective service cards and 125,000 estimated young men left for Canada. In the early ‘70’s the University of Minnesota was rife with protests for everything from Black’s, women’s and Native American’s rights. But at the helm was the war protest.
After the Kent State killings, we all knew this was not just mild protest any more, but war; war on all of us.
photos courtesy of Judith Davidson
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